Clinton Office Hostage Crisis Resolved

According to the New York Times:

Shortly after 6:15 [EST], a young man, presumably one of the last hostages, was led out of the office.

Moments later, Mr. Eisenberg was led out of the office — an older man, wearing a white shirt, dress pants and a tie. He unwrapped a large piece of clear plastic from around his body and held his hands in the air. He then lay down spread eagle on the street and was patted down by police. A state police explosives unit moved into the office.

Suspect Is Arrested in Clinton Office Standoff

A local TV station reports that no one was injured, including the hostage taker. He is identified as Leeland Eisenberg, who apparently is going through a divorce. The TV station also reports that he has spent time in prison:

NewsCenter 5 confirmed that Eisenberg was scheduled to appear in Strafford County Superior Court at 1:30 p.m. Friday with his wife for a domestic violence hearing. Eisenberg also spent time in prison in Massachusetts. He was released from MCI Concord on March 16, 2005.

"This gentleman is known to the Rochester Police Department," Dubois said. "There is a public record. I've got to protect his privacy rights."

Hostage-Taker Arrested Outside Clinton Office

CNN reports that he called the network to say that he was a mental patient who had been trying to get help.

Eisenberg said he was a mental health patient who had been trying to get help. He'd been unsuccessful, he said, because he didn't have the "thousands of dollars" he was told he'd need.

He tried several mental health facilities, he said, "even called the Department of Health and Human Services." But no one could help him, he said.

Hostage taker complained of lack of access to mental health care

The CNN report goes on to say that Eisenberg wanted to speak with Sen. Clinton about the state of mental health care. So far, this is the only connection I can see between the two.

That no one was injured speaks of the professionalism of the police who handled this situation. My somewhat faulty memory tells me that these things don't usually end this well. Hopefully, Mr. Eisenberg will get the treatment he needs, and the former hostages can go on about their lives.

UPDATE: Dangerous irony level alert:

The incident was a grim reminder that no matter how much protection a candidate has — and Mrs. Clinton has more than most — there is no way to watch every door of every office in the carnival that is a national campaign.

Clinton: ‘Everything Stopped’

The irony, of course, is that this is a political blog at the New York Times online edition. The sort of folks who seem to always find a new terror incident to obsess about while the things that are really killing us, like traffic, alcohol, smoking, crime, and lack of health care, go largely unremarked. There's extra irony, of course, because the NYT was one of the places you could go to read all about how dangerous Saddam was in the run-up to our "War On Terrah" in Iraq.